The Irish standard., 1887-06-25

THE
| ing for an opportunity to send Queen
Victoria skyward.
| But while this scene Of grandeur was
being witnessed in London different
kind of ceremony was being held in
New York, the chief city on the Ameri
can continent. Several thousand Irish
men and women gathered at the Church
of the Holy Innocents in that city to
celebrate the Requiem Mass for
500 900 people who died in Ireland of
famine during the reign of Victoria.
Outside OF the door circulars were dis
tributed and eagerly snapped up on
which, in border of mourning, ap-
peared the following synopsis:
''some of the benefits conferred upon Ireland
during Victoria's murderous reign: Died Of
famine, 15OO 900; evicted, s668,OOO; expatriated,
1900, 900; emigrants who died of ship fever, 57,-
600; imprisoned under coercion acts, over 5000
butchered in suppressing public meetings, 800
coercion acts So; executed for resisting tyranny,
95 died in English dungeons, 27O; newspapers
suppressed. H."
Inside the church all was darkness
and gloom. A black catafalque was
stationed in the middle aisle, and
nearly all the women present. by pre-
vious arrangement, were dressed in
mourning.
What contrast! If the ghosts of
those 100000 persons who died of
starvation during the reign of Victoria
could have appeared on the scene in
London last Tuesday what an effect it
would have produced on the assembled
multitude! That conscience which
makes towards may have had some
thing to do with Victoria's fear of
dynamite. But to return to the New
York ceremonies. Rev. Father Larkin,
who stated privately that intimidating
letters had come to him trying to
frighten him out of the services, cele-
brated the Requiem High Mass assisted
by Fathers Doherty and Kenny. At
the conclusion of the Mass Father
Larkin removed the vestments and ad-
dressed the congregation from the foot
of the altar. 1t had seldom come to a
priest, he said, to ask prayers for mil
lion and half souls taken to the next
world by the gaunt and horrible death
of famine, especially where the deaths
were the result not of idleness, dissipa-
tion or the ungratefulness of country,
but wholly due to mans inhumanity to
man. The terrible Indictment Of the
events of Irish history under the half
century reign of Queen Victoria, and
of her indifference to the sufferings Of
the people and even her advocacy Of
the laws and customs that caused them
will be blood blot on the pages that
will tell the story of her reign. which
otherwise would be one of glory and
great fame. But it is not only in the
number of deaths that occurred in Ire
land on account of the five famines
which were made in Victoria's s reign by
the laws which govern Ireland and
grind her down, but also in the multi
tude of woes that were brought upon
her people by expatriation and by the
persecution of those who had the cour-
age to raise their voices in defense of
this afflicted people. Father Larkin
concluded his terrible Indictment in the
following words:
"Over four millions were banished
from their homes to seek shelter else
where, and many of the ships that con-
veyed them over the ocean became
hearses before they reached the land to
which they were bearing them. The
bones of hundreds Of thousands are
resting in the ocean bed and in the
potters' fields of seaboard cities $1,000
victims of sea fever and of the cruelties
inflicted on them by sea captains. are
lying without headstone to tell their
names and whence and why they came
to be buried in those lonely graves. To
pray for them and to pray to Almighty
God to comfort them in their death,
who had been such sufferers in life, is
what we are here assembled for this
morning, and to ask, too, that the con-
tinuance of the affliction of Ireland may
cease"
Father Larkin read an account Of the
sufferings of Irishmen during the past
fifty years from various standard
works. There were bitter tears shed
during the services.
DESIGNATING FANEUIL HALL.
Why the British residents Of Bos.
ton should have chosen F,aneuil Hall
as the place in which to hold